Wadi Rum was so much more interesting and exiting than I thought it would be. We arrived in a small mini bus taxi with three other people, two very jolly girls from Leeds University who are studying Arabic in Cairo and were on their Christmas holiday and a technical journalist from Spain, called Manuel.
We all got transfered to a 4x4 and driven from the visitors centre to the Bedouin village where we were transfered again into an ancient pickup with 2 bench seats in the open back. Our driver and guide was a young Bedou man in a long white gown, baggy trousers and the headwrap thing that everyone here wears. Off we set, clinging on for dear life as he bounced along dessert tracks. As we left the village behind the hugeness of the dessert hits you, there are enormous outcrops of rock, very steep and high and swathes of sand, some brown, some yellow, red close to the rocks, all undulating all over the place.
We drove a bit and then stopped to look at sand dunes, drove a bit more and stopped for a look at some rock art, then a wonderful lump of rock with a natural arch at the top. Our guide was always keen to get the girls to climb/explore with him!! It was really good though. The most scary bit was after we stopped for tea when the guide encouraged the girls to try driving. The vehicle was without brakes and driving in sand is a skill that needs practie, so for those of us on the back it was a bit of a white knuckle moment.
We saw Laurence of Arabias house and his spring and ended up sitting in a Bedouin house being ernestly converesed with by a 10 year old Bedouin boy while we waited for the taxi.
Fantastic .
Tess
3 comments:
That desert round there looks pretty bleak. I imagine that Ray Mears would have a hard time finding sustenance!
Nice to see that you're not alone in your travels. It seems as though, wherever one goes, there are always like-minded people who are also bumming arou... sorry, taking time out to visit far-flung places. :)
less of your cheek Brian get back to that housework, Carol wants it finished before she gets back from work
It's all right for some. Here's me working my fingers to the bone, slaving over a hot wossname, up to me elbows in cold water, etc etc.
Oh, and the cats say, "Miaow!"
Which, I am reliably informed, means "We're not really keen on salmon Whiskas, but beef is brill!"
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